Dingler, Pérez lead Tigers past
Guardians 6-3 and into AL Division Series against Mariners
[October 03, 2025]
By JOE REEDY
CLEVELAND (AP) — Dillon Dingler hit a tiebreaking homer in the sixth
inning, Wenceel Pérez drove in a pair of runs in a four-run seventh
and the Detroit Tigers defeated the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on
Thursday in the deciding Game 3 of their AL Wild Card Series.
It is the second straight season the Tigers have won a Wild Card
Series on the road. Detroit heads to Seattle for the first two games
of a best-of-five Division Series, with Game 1 on Saturday.
It was also a little bit of sweet revenge for the Tigers after their
season ended in Cleveland last year with a loss in Game 5 of the
ALDS.
“I don’t think it needs to be any sweeter than what it feels like
right now because you have to earn these wins,” manager A.J. Hinch
said. “You have to earn the opportunity to play in October. You’ve
got to earn a full-series win over a good team, a hot team, a team
that we know well.”
The AL West champion Mariners, the second seed, took four of six
regular-season meetings with the Tigers, who are the third AL wild
card.
José Ramírez drove in Cleveland’s first run with a single. The AL
Central champion Guardians were 15 1/2 games back in early July
before completing the biggest comeback in division or league play in
baseball history.
However, they ran out of steam in the playoffs as Detroit turned the
page after posting the second-worst record in the majors in
September (7-17).
“It stinks for it to end that way. I couldn’t be more proud of them,
of what we accomplished,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “It’s
not enough. We want more. And I think that’s really the message, is
let this sting. We’re close. We are really close. We’re not quite
there yet.”
The game was tied 1-all with two outs in the sixth when Dingler got
an elevated changeup from Joey Cantillo on a 1-1 count and drove it
401 feet into the bleachers in left-center to put the Tigers on top.
It was also the first postseason hit and RBI for the Tigers catcher.
“I was able to get a pitch to hit and do a little damage,” Dingler
said. “I feel like the momentum in the series was the biggest thing.
The team with the biggest momentum or the most momentum was the one
that was going to carry on.”
[to top of second column] |
Detroit Tigers players celebrate after winning Game 3 of the
American League Wild Card baseball playoff series against the
Cleveland Guardians in Cleveland, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP
Photo/Phil Long)
Detroit then broke it open in the seventh by
sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring four times to make it
6-1.
With one out and the bases loaded, Pérez lined a base hit to right
off Erik Sabrowski to drive in Javier Báez and Parker Meadows.
Hunter Gaddis came in and gave up RBI singles to Spencer Torkelson
and Riley Greene, which brought in Kerry Carpenter and Pérez.
Kyle Finnegan got the win, retiring all four batters he faced in
relief. Cantillo took the loss.
“When Wenceel got the hit — I don’t know why, in baseball, it seems
like one good thing happens and then two, three, four, five at-bats
in a row were exceptional,” Hinch said. “We wanted to get even more
greedy and do more. But it was nice to separate and breathe a little
bit. But knowing they weren’t going to give in.”
The Tigers opened the scoring in the third. With one out and runners
on the corners, Carpenter hit a grounder down the first-base line
that deflected off C.J. Kayfus’ glove when he tried to backhand it.
The ball rolled into foul territory near the stands as Meadows
scored. Carpenter went to second and Gleyber Torres advanced to
third on what the official scorer ruled a double
The Guardians tied it in the fourth. George Valera led off with a
double to the right-field corner and scored on Ramírez’s base hit on
a knuckle curve by starter Jack Flaherty on a full count.
The single was the 40th hit of Ramírez’s postseason career, making
him the fifth player in franchise history to reach that mark.
In the eighth inning, Detroit reliever Will Vest dropped a throw
while covering first base on Ramírez's grounder for an error that
allowed Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan to score. Vest quickly
recovered the ball near the dugout, however, and threw out Ramírez
trying to reach second on the play.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
